She listened in silence to Alex’s response.
Then sat for a long time with the phone on her knee.
Lost for words.
Back to square one.
‘The woman who’s following Efraim is wanted in connection with the murder inquiry,’ she said eventually. ‘They think her name is Mona Samson, and that she was in a relationship with the father of one of the boys. Some of that information has already been leaked to the media.’
‘How does Recht know she’s shadowing Kiel?’ GD said in surprise.
‘He doesn’t, but as far as I can see we must be talking about the same woman.’
She was almost grinding her teeth in frustration.
What is it I’m not seeing? What is it that we’re all missing?
Alex had mentioned that they could be looking for two separate perpetrators. If Mona Samson was the person who had helped Gideon Eisenberg, she was still out there. And she was a threat to Eden and her family.
But how would she know that Efraim had two children?
‘I have to go home right now,’ she said firmly. ‘We can talk about this in the morning.’
‘Good idea. Try to get some rest – you look tired.’
Eden felt her knees crack as she got to her feet. She was back in her office pulling on her coat when Mikael rang.
‘Where are you?’
‘I know, I’m late. But I’m on my way right now, and I’ve got lots of good news.’
She picked up her bag and Dani’s new violin.
‘Sounds promising,’ Mikael said. ‘We could certainly do with some good news here; it’s been one hell of an evening.’
‘I’m really sorry you had to leave in such a rush. But it will only be for tonight, if that’s any consolation; we can move back home tomorrow.’
‘Eden, we’re not in the other apartment. We’re still at home.’
She stopped dead.
‘What?’
‘Everything went wrong, and the girls were absolutely worn out.’
She wasn’t listening any more. Fear flooded her body. Not because something had happened, but because she was thinking about what could have happened.
‘For fuck’s sake, Mikael, this is serious. You have to do as I say when I ring and…’
‘No, I don’t,’ he interrupted her, sounding furious. ‘If it’s so important, then you can bloody well come home like a normal person, explain what’s going on instead of creating havoc like you did this afternoon.’
At that moment Eden heard a sound in the background.
A sound she couldn’t place.
It came again.
The doorbell.
The doorbell.
‘Mikael, don’t open the door!’
‘It’s only the pizzas I ordered about a hundred years ago. I got so angry when they didn’t arrive that they promised to send them over for free. We can have them with a glass of wine when you get home.’
She heard his footsteps moving through the apartment.
‘Mikael, I mean it. Tell them to leave the pizzas outside the door. Don’t open it!’
‘For pity’s sake, Eden. I’m not going to frighten the life out of a pizza delivery boy just because you’re paranoid.’
She set off again. Started to run.
‘Please, Mikael, please…’
‘Eden, it’s the pizzas. He’s got the boxes in his hand. Love you, see you later.’
He was gone, leaving her alone.
Pizza.
Of course he was right.
Of course it was the pizza delivery boy.
She called him back.
Her heart was pounding like a jack hammer.
Unnecessarily.
The pizzas had arrived, Mikael had just opened a bottle of wine and was about to lay the table.
A stray tear of pure relief trickled down her cheek, and she dashed it away.
‘By the way, can you pick up some milk on the way home? I’ve just noticed we’ve run out.’
‘No problem.’
She decided to call in at an ICA supermarket that she knew was open late. There was always a queue, but it didn’t matter. After all, she wasn’t in a hurry any more.
Everything was under control.
He was running out of patience. Something had to happen soon. She had to show herself again, and next time he wouldn’t miss her. He couldn’t, because otherwise he knew it would be too late.
Efraim Kiel had believed he had a well thought out plan. If he hadn’t been given the task of recruiting a new security chief for the Solomon Community in Stockholm, he would have found another reason to come to Sweden.
Because now it was time to put things right.
Time to wreak the revenge he and Nadia had spent ten years waiting for.
Nadia, the amazing woman he had managed to recruit as a Mossad informant. A Palestinian woman whose great secret was that her father had been an Israeli Jew; her mother had never told anyone else.
Nadia had been recruited because of her husband. She was married to a man the Israelis suspected of being involved in Palestinian terrorist activities. Not only involved; he had been one of the operational leaders. Nadia had had integrity; she wouldn’t sell out just any Palestinian to the Israeli side, but the fact was that the man she had fallen in love with and married had deceived her. He wanted to pursue an armed battle against the Israeli occupying forces, which she was happy to go along with. But not if the violence was directed exclusively at the civilian population. She had made it clear at an early stage that she was only prepared to be with him if he and his comrades attacked military targets.
He had given her his word. And broken it.
That had provided Efraim with the key to a successful recruitment, and soon Nadia was one of the Israeli security service’s most important sources.
In his defence, Efraim often told himself that he had tried to resist. That he had never meant to fall in love, but had been forced to capitulate. Efraim had never felt for any woman what he felt for Nadia. She became pregnant almost right away, said that she knew it was Efraim’s child she was carrying.
‘You can’t do this,’ Efraim had said. ‘Your husband will kill you if he finds out.’
‘Which is why it will be our secret – yours and mine,’ she had replied.
Therefore, he was not inexperienced when it came to being the father of another man’s child, but in Nadia’s case he had known about it, and it had caused him great pain. Because Efraim had wanted the impossible: a normal life with Nadia.
There were a thousand reasons why it was out of the question, but only one counted.
They would die, all three of them. Even if they left Israel.
‘He knows people everywhere,’ Nadia had said. ‘They would find me and kill me.’
Therefore, the husband had to go. Somehow.
It wasn’t an easy operation to put in place. Months passed, turning into years. Nadia said she needed a break from Efraim, and those words led to a hiatus of several years. They met only to exchange information, and she had something to offer less and less often. Her husband was lying low; he had lost influence within the organisation. Efraim didn’t see his son, but had to make do with the photographs Nadia gave him. The boy was too old; he would start asking questions if he was suddenly introduced to an Israeli man.
Then MI5 got in touch. They were trying to track down a terrorist who was planning attacks on British embassies.
He stamped his feet up and down on the spot. He followed the news on his phone. Apparently Gideon Eisenberg was dead; he had killed himself.
It had been Saul’s idea to call one of the Palestinian sources the Paper Boy. At first Efraim had thought it was a bad idea, but then he had changed his mind and said he wanted to use the name for his newest recruit. Nadia the Paper Boy had become Efraim’s project. No one else was allowed to meet her, even though they knew of her existence. No one but Efraim and his boss knew her identity. Gideon and Saul ran their own sources in Palestinian towns and villages.